United States gifts Nigeria 4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine

The Joe Biden U.S administration will ship almost 10 million COVID-19 vaccines to two of Africa’s most populous nations in the coming days.

5.6 million Pfizer doses will be going to South Africa and 4 million Moderna doses will be heading Nigeria's way, the New York Times reports.

The United States is ramping up vaccine deliveries to Africa as a third wave of the pandemic continues to accelerate across the continent.

The deliveries are part of a pledge President Biden made in June to share 80 million doses globally--with about 25 million doses expected to arrive in 49 African states.

Vaccine availability in Africa has been hampered by a factor called 'vaccine nationalism', which has seen wealthy nations snapping up excess doses of available vaccines for their own populations.

The United Kingdom will also ship millions of doses of vaccines to the rest of the world in the coming days through the vaccine alliance initiative, COVAX.

Nigeria received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines in March.

The 4 million double-dosage AstraZeneca vaccines have since been successfully administered to a tiny fraction of the population.